


4 - Let it snow

by Kat_Lovegood



Series: Professor Layton Advent Calendar [4]
Category: Layton Kyouju Series | Professor Layton Series
Genre: Advent Calendar, Advent Calendar Drabble, Gen, Unwound Future, Unwound Future Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-03
Updated: 2019-12-03
Packaged: 2021-02-25 23:48:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,150
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21663958
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kat_Lovegood/pseuds/Kat_Lovegood
Summary: Clive wants to let it snow.
Series: Professor Layton Advent Calendar [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1557985
Comments: 1
Kudos: 10





	4 - Let it snow

Many times Clive had walked the street‘s of Future London, as he liked to call the City beneath the City, shortly after teatime. Usually, the streets would be brightly lit, the sky illuminated in a pale blue with occasional white patches to simulate clouds. Sometimes the sky would be grey as well, and water would be released from giant sprinklers all over the ceiling, mimicking the rain the City was so famous - or infamous – for.

But now the artificial sun had been dimmed, and only the pale light of the stars, or rather the light bulbs that had been installed to imitate the stars, could be seen. Clive wondered what this was about – had they a problem with the power again because Dimitri needed to perform another one of his daft experiments that involved gigantic amounts of electricity? Or were, perhaps, the cables, that supplied the underground City, broken? The young man angrily made his way to what the other inhabitants of this place called „Chinatown“, though very few Chinese people actually lived there in his dystopian London.

When he finally made his way to the top of the Towering Pagoda, he found Dimitri sitting at his desk, lost in thought over some blueprints. That was strange. No dangerous experiment was in sight, but the other man also did not give the impression of an emergency.

„Would you care to explain to me why it is already dark outside?“, the younger man asked, an aggressive undertone in his voice. Clive was usually not the type of guy that looked threatening, but he certainly could produce the effect if he felt like it. Dimitri, however, was used to his partner‘s antics and did not seem impressed at all.

„Well, if we are going to pretend that this is the London of the Future, we will have to simulate the light conditions in accordance with astronomy, Clive. And even though we are switching night and day around a bit, we can‘t have the sun rise and set at the same time every day. We are trying to fool some of Britain‘s brightest scientists, after all! They would surely notice if the sun only sets at 7 p.m. on the day that is supposed to be the winter solstice“, he replied cooly.

Clive was taken aback for a moment, as the other men‘s words made perfect sense. Clive himself had been so preoccupied with managing the City‘s people that he had barely paid attention to the shift in seasons until now. He had, of course, noticed that the weather got colder – they supplied the underground City with air directly from the real London above their heads, without filtering or heating it. And it was early December by now.

Suddenly, Clive had an idea. It was a silly idea, really, but then again most of his ideas were quite silly if he thought about it. He had, after all, devised a scheme to built a fake Future London beneath the real British capital, kidnap the Prime Minister and asked Dimitri to build a time machine. The other men could hardly be surprised by the question Clive was about to ask.

„Could we make it snow?“, he inquired, and Dimitri looked up once more.

The scientist was a bit startled by this request as Clive did not normally pay much attention to trivial matters such as the artificially produced weather. He would usually just be annoyed when he was caught in a particularly heavy rain shower, especially if he had not been warned beforehand. The forecast in the „New London Times“ was sometimes deliberately inaccurate – you could make people believe in time travel, but accurate predictions of the weather were simply too utopian. Though now that Dimitri thought about it…

He was interrupted in his train of thought by an overly dramatic clearing of the throat from his „partner in crime“. The boy was always rather annoyed by Dimitri‘s habit to get lost in his own mind.

„Well, I suppose it would be possible… though we would have to put quite a bit of effort into the modification of the sprinklers, and it would have to be done exclusively from the tunnels that go over the „sky“, as you like to call it. It would rarely freeze in the city, anyway. Even though we do not artificially modify the air temperature, the limited circulation, the isolating ground and the excess heat from our machines keep it about five degrees warmer than above at all times. Couldn‘t we just put the lack of snow down to global warming?“

Dimitri sounded rather annoyed, but Clive would not give up so easily. „But it would be possible, wouldn‘t it? You do keep some massive coolers around, I think to use as particle decelerator or whatever. We could use those!“

„But it would cost a lot of energy, and we need those for our experiments...“

„Don‘t worry. I only want to use them for a day or two. And I think, in my infinite goodness, I will allow the scientists to take that specific day off...“, Clive interjected.

Dimitri was just slightly confused. Usually, they could not work fast enough in Clive‘s opinion.

„What on earth has gotten into you?“, the older man asked.

„Well, let‘s call it the Christmas spirit“, the younger man answered and swiftly made his exit before more questions could be asked.

Dimitri shook his head. Would he ever truly understand the boy?

* * *

When Christmas came, Future London was slowly being buried in fluffy, white snow. The temperature had dropped quite drastically during the day, and now that the sun had gone down – or rather the bright lights went out – on Christmas Eve, the glittery snowflakes sparkled in the glow of the streetlights.

Clive watched the scenery from a window of the clock shop. Cogg was busy decorating a small Christmas tree, and Spring had disappeared into the kitchen at the back of the flat. A gramophone in the living room was playing „White Christmas“, and for once, Clive was feeling at peace. He looked down on the photograph of his parents that he held tight in his hands. His mother had loved that song, and she would always sing it in the kitchen while preparing Christmas dinner. Clive had always been excited, studying the clouds out of his bedroom window to see if any snow would fall the night before Christmas. It had only happened once, though, but that Christmas, when he had been five and had spent all morning playing in the snow with his parents, was still one of his favourite memories.

But now, as he was staring up into the sky, he realised that the snow did not make him happy. It made him sad. A single tear fell from his face, and his lips trembled as he quietly listened to the gramophone, thinking back to this happy Christmas past.


End file.
